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<p><a
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<br><a
href="spewingforth_archive.html" class="links">Archive</a>
<p>
<b>WHAT?</b><BR><BR><font
color="#000099">Workplace issues, Occupational Safety and Health,
Public Health, Environment and Political Information that everyone should know.<BR><BR>
What happens inside the Beltway matters outside the Beltway.
<BR><BR>That's why they try to keep it
secret.</font><BR>
<br>
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<DIV class=posts>
<BR><b><font
color="#000000">Health and Safety
Websites</b><BR><BR>
</DIV>
<li><a style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.hazards.org/">Hazards Magazine<BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/safety/">AFL-CIO<BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold" href="http://www.afscme.org/health/index.html">AFSCME</div>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.nycosh.org">NYCOSH</div>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.uaw.org/hs/index.html">United Auto
Workers<BR>
<li><a style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.osha.gov/as/opa/worker/index.html">OSHA Worker
Page<BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="www.coshnetwork.org">COSH Network</div>
<p></a>
<DIV><BR><a
style="font-size:12px"><b><font color="#000000">Good
Political Blogs</DIV></b><BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.prospect.org/weblog/">Tapped<BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.maxspeak.org/gm/index.html">MaxSpeak</A></DIV></font>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/752664.asp">Altercation</A></DIV></font>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/">Talking
Points</A></DIV></font>
<p></a>
<DIV><BR><a
style="font-size:12px"><b><font
color="#000000">Political Humor</DIV></b><BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.bartcop.com/">BartCop<BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://slate.msn.com/?id=76886">The Complete
Bushisms</A><BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.whitehouse.org/">Whitehouse.org<BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.theonion.com">The Onion</A><BR>
<li><a style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.thespeciousreport.com/">The Specious
Report</A><BR>
<li><a
style="font-size:10px;font-weight:bold"
href="http://www.solidarity.com/hkcartoons/">Huck-Konopacki Labor
Cartoons</A></DIV></font>
</div>
<BR>
<a style="font-size:12px;font-weight:bold"
href="mailto:jbarab@starpower.net" style="color : #666666;
text-decoration : none;">Send Comments</a><br>
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<p><div class="date">Tuesday, April 01,
2003</div>
<div
class="posts">
<p>
<a
name="91821021">
<b
class="byline">
<a
class="byline"
href="2003_04_01_spewingforth_archive.html#91821021">Posted
11:49
PM</a>
by Jordan
</b>
</a>
<br><b>Neither Traffic, Nor Anthrax, Nor
Ice....</b><br><p>"The occupational hazards of being a
mail carrier are frequently overlooked," states the <a href="http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MzYwMjY2">North
Jersey Times </a>in an article about the hazards of being a mail
carrier. Traffic accidents, antrax,
slips and falls, impatient drivers are all in a day's work.
</div>
<div
class="posts">
<p>
<a
name="91819286">
<b
class="byline">
<a
class="byline"
href="2003_04_01_spewingforth_archive.html#91819286">Posted
11:20
PM</a>
by Jordan
</b>
</a>
<br><b>Georgia on OSHA's
Mind</b><br><p>The <i>Atlanta Business
Chronicle</i>, of all publications, has been running a series called
"Risky Business," profiling large companies with serious health and
safety problems. Georgia Pacific (<a
href="http://www.11alive.com/help/search/search_article.asp?storyid=29191&searchdata=osha">"Georgia-Pacific:
13 Dead in 3 Years</a>"),UPS (<a
href="http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2003/03/24/story2.html">"UPS
facilities cited for injuries, illness"</a>) and Home Depot (<a
href="http://www.11alive.com/help/search/search_article.asp?storyid=28093&searchdata=osha">"Home
Depot's OSHA Violations Soar"</a>) are the first three companies profiled.
(The <a href="http://www.csb.gov/news/2002/docs/ds-gp_11_25_02.pdf">U.S.
Chemical Safety Board </a>recently released a report on an investigation
into the deaths of two Georgia Pacific conractors in
Alabama).<br><p>While I wouldn't call the articles
"indepth" or "hard-hitting" reporting (like the NY
Times-Frontline McWane Series), the problems, injuries and fatalities are
discussed in a surprisingly candid way for a business journal. Nor is there any OSHA bashing. The UPS
article even includes statements from Teamsters Health and Safety Director Lamont
Byrd. The problems and union statements
(e.g. that injury stats are coming down due to intimidation) are countered by
statements from the companies explaining how they've cleaned up their acts are
now model places to work.<br><p>A fourth article <a
href="http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2003/03/31/story2.html
">"2,578 OSHA violations in Ga. in 2002" </a>uses OSHA
citations to show that "as OSHA records show, safety is a widespread
concern among many Georgia companies."<br><p>First the <i>NY
Times</i>, then the <i>Atlantic Business Journal</i>. Maybe someday the <i>Washington
Post</i> will discover that workers exist.
</div>
<div
class="posts">
<p>
<a
name="91759571">
<b
class="byline">
<a
class="byline"
href="2003_04_01_spewingforth_archive.html#91759571">Posted
12:48
AM</a>
by Jordan
</b>
</a>
<br><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/nyregion/31MONT.html"><br>Union
Drive at Montefiore Could Be Labor Landmark</a> <br><p>Check
out the article about interns trying to unionize at Montefiore hospital in New
York.<br><p>Significance: "The hospital has taken several
steps to delay or defeat a possible unionization vote and, more important, it
is asking a federal government agency to rule that residents and interns do not
have the standard rights of an employee group to unionize....Montefiore,
already a trend-setter, is seen by both sides in this dispute as setting
precedents — perhaps national ones — in labor relations."
</div>
<blockquote><hr></blockquote>
<p><div class="date">Monday, March 31,
2003</div>
<div
class="posts">
<p>
<a name="91755857">
<b
class="byline">
<a
class="byline"
href="2003_03_01_spewingforth_archive.html#91755857">Posted
11:46
PM</a>
by Jordan
</b>
</a>
<br><br><b>Acts of God, Acts of Man, and Faith-based
Health and Safety</b><br><p>Here we clarify a little recent
history. This story, like much of our
most important history, contains lessons that should never be forgotten.
Unfortunately, most people will never know about it in the first place, much
less remember it or do something about it.<br><i><br>The
Nation</i> ran an excellent article in its March 17 edition (which is
unfortunately not published on its web page) about the real story behind last
year's "miraculous" Somerset County, Pennsylvania mine rescue.
<br><p>Written by Charles McCollester, director of the Pennsylvania
Center for the Study of Labor Relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania,
the article describes how "The flooding of the nonunion Quecreek mine
reveals much about government inadequacy stemming from chronic underfunding;
government incompetence and/or complicity with powerful vested interests;
corporate irresponsibility and greed; and coordinated anti-union activity."
<br><p>Prior to the flooding of the mine there had been multiple
warnings about the inadequacy of the 1957 map that showed the adjoining Saxman
mine that was flooded with water and was the source of the flood in the
Quecreek mine. After the disaster, several elderly former Saxman miners claimed
on local television that they had gone to the owner of the mine, Black Wolf,
in the months just preceding the breach to warn the company that its map
was inadequate and that Black Wolf was nearing the Saxman Coal Harrison #2 mine
workings.<br><p>Despite these warnings, Black Wolf owner-operator
David Rebuck called the flooding an "act of God" in one local TV
interview. As McCollester wrote,
"The flood of testimonials to the mercy of God threatens to obscure the
very human factors that led to the near-disaster. God may well have had a hand
in the rescue, but human avarice and more than a century of fierce corporate
manipulation and struggle for profit and control were behind the wall of water
that swept into the Quecreek mine."<br><p><i><font
color="#000099">(Note from JB: The "Act of God" excuse
was often used, in my experience, to explain such "unfathomable"
processes as the collapse of a 12 foot deep trench on top of construction
workers or the asphyxiation of sewer workers in an unmonitored confined
space. "Who could have predicted
it?" "Brave men, dangerous
job, tsk, tsk." A related
scapegoat was Mother Nature, as in "Yup, that trench just gave way. Who
could have known? Just one of those
terrible unpredictable things when you're dealing with Mother
nature.")<br><p>These "excuses" often worked -- at
least for public consumption -- because they were generally quoted in the
typical one-day article in the local newspaper. By the time experts are found
(if anyone bothers) or the OSHA report comes out (assuming they weren't public
employees who had no OSHA coverage), the local media had lost interest. But I digress...)</font> </i><br><p>The article
notes "The ultimate act of political cynicism was reserved for President
Bush, who made a choreographed whistle-stop visit to the rescued miners on his
way to a million-dollar campaign fundraiser in
Pittsburgh."<br><p>The UMWA had attempted to organize the
mine, but "Repeated attempts to organize Quecreek had broken down because
the majority of the miners were intimidated. [According to] UMWA organizer Nick
Molnar (now retired): "The company gets wind of our presence and first you
get threats to fire individuals who support the union; that's followed by
veiled threats about closing the mine. In a depressed area, such actions are
extremely effective."<br><p>"If Quecreek had been union,
workers might have been more candid about company responsibility immediately
after the rescue, when some of them supported management's claim of normal
mining conditions. If the union had been recognized, the workers could have
refused to continue advancing--without fear for their jobs--as they saw
conditions worsening."<br><p><i><br><font
color="#000099">Union health and safety activists understand that
the best guarantor of a safe workplace is not OSHA and not (for God's sake)
Workers Compensation, but a strong, knowledgeable and active union. (Some think it's even possible that health
and safety problems would make a good organizing issue.)<br><p>If
you haven't the article, go to your local library and copy it. (Or if you ask
nicely-- <A
HREF="mailto:jbarab@starpower.net">jbarab@starpower.net</a>
-- I'll e-mail you an electronic copy.) Then read it. Learn it. Teach it.</font>
</i>
</div>
<div
class="posts">
<p>
<a
name="91704675">
<b
class="byline">
<a
class="byline"
href="2003_03_01_spewingforth_archive.html#91704675">Posted
7:50
AM</a>
by Jordan
</b>
</a>
<br><b>What's Really
Important</b><br><p>Yes, there may be a disasterous and
tragic war in Iraq and a grave constitutional crisis at home. The economy is in the pits and fictitous
times rule the day. But for today at least there is a scent of joy in Mudville.
For today the baseball season begins.
And let it be known that the paper of record, none other than the <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/sports/20030330_mlb03_PREVIEW/index_NLWEST.html">New
York Times</a>, predicts that the Los Angeles Dodgers will take first
place in the Western Division of the National League. And with the energy generated from that prediction, we can, nay,
<i>we will</i>, move forward in our fight to make this world a
better place.
</div>
<blockquote><hr></blockquote>
<p><div class="date">Sunday, March 30,
2003</div>
<div
class="posts">
<p>
<a
name="91637390">
<b
class="byline">
<a
class="byline"
href="2003_03_01_spewingforth_archive.html#91637390">Posted
12:52
AM</a>
by Jordan
</b>
</a>
<br><b>Fiddling Around While Rome
Burns</b><br><p>Just got back from a French Solidarity
potluck where everyone brought French food and ate under a banner reading:
"Faites l'amour, pas la guerre."<br><p>I never fail to be
surprised at the silliness that some political figures in this country appear
proud to display. We've already been entertained by the House of
Representatives voting to change the name of French Fries to Freedom Fries. And
Senator Byrd (D-WV) has the nerve to say that Congress isn't debating the
war!<br><p>Now some of our political leaders seem to have risen to
an even higher level of stupidity. But wait, let's set the scene: lousy
economy, high unemployment, exploding deficit, illegal war -- just to name a
few. All of these problems being
tackled by our fearless elected representatives you think? Check this out in today's <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44625-2003Mar28.html">Washington
Post</a>:<br><p><blockquote>Inventing the term
"freedom fries" may have failed to impress folks in Paris, so now
several dozen members of Congress are proposing a more tangible means of
conveying American anger toward France: cutting off U.S. military contracts
with Sodexho Inc., a French-owned food service firm.
<br><p>Fifty-nine House members signed a letter sent yesterday to
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urging the cancellation of Sodexho's
dealings with the Pentagon, which include an $881 million contract to feed U.S.
Marines at 55 facilities, according to the letter's author, Rep. Jack Kingston
(R-Ga.). "My colleagues and I abhor the idea of continuing to pour
American dollars into a French based firm," the letter
says.</blockquote><br><p><font
color="#FF0000"><b>Oops.</b> </font>Seems that
although Sodexho is owned by the French, the company has 110,000 employees in
the United States, including more than 4,000 in Kingston's home state of
Georgia. <br><p><b>This is why these guys are elected? These
are the guys running the most powerful country in the world? Bah! Let them eat
snails.</b><br><p><p>
</div>
<blockquote><hr></blockquote>
<p><div class="date">Saturday, March 29,
2003</div>
<div
class="posts">
<p>
<a
name="91590577">
<b
class="byline">
<a
class="byline"
href="2003_03_01_spewingforth_archive.html#91590577">Posted
1:22
AM</a>
by Jordan
</b>
</a>
<br>You
may remember Clinton Administration's draft contractor responsibility regulation
that was deep-sixed by the Bushies. And you may also remember the <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/national/DANGEROUS_BUSINESS.html?pagewanted=all&position=top">New
York Times article</a> and <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/workplace/mcwane/">Frontline
series</a> on McWane Corporation, whose "disciplined management
practices" killed and injured a large number of employees.<br> <br><p>Travel with me now to
Beaverton, Oregon and the <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/metrowest/oregonian/beaverton/index.ssf?/base/metro_west_news/1048684163194250.xml">Tualatin
Valley Water District</a>. Seems the District discovered that it had done
about $155,000 worth of business with a subsidiary of McWane. Alarmed at the Times series that maintained
that McWane regularly put profits before worker safety, the District prepared a
letter to McWane from Board President Richard Burke stating that "I must
convey the disgust and revulsion felt by the Board of Commissioners after
reviewing reports from credible news agencies of admitted, willful violations
of workers safety laws at the Tyler Pipe facility." <br><p>The
letter also said the district would pass along information about McWane to
other water providers in the Portland area. <br><p><p>It concluded:
"We want to be assured that as the Tualatin Valley Water District
participates in huge capital projects that will result in pipe purchases in the
tens of millions of dollars, we will not be using pipes and fittings
manufactured with an abject disregard of human decency. Shame on you."
<br><p><p>Unfortunately, the Board backed off when Michael D.
McAllister, assistant sales manager for Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe, a McWane
subsidiary in Provo, Utah assured the Board that "We're not the same company
we were a few years back," The
Board will first talk with OSHA and the union representing McWane (The
USWA).<br><p>"It seemed to me that we had to do
something," Tualatin Valley board member Jim Doane said. "There might
be ways of putting into bid documents some way to evaluate (bidders) on ways
other than cost."<br><p><p>Stay tuned. But in the
meantime, think of the potential of cities and counties all over the country
taking into account contractors' health and safety records. There are a few
"nuclear free zones" around the U.S. where cities refuse to buy
products produced by companies that make nuclear weapons. Think of the potential of "Corporate Criminal Free Zones"
where anyone wanting to sell goods and services to a public entity would first
have to submit its OSHA and EPA
records.<br><p><p><p><b>The
War</b><BR><br><p><p><p>This Blog is not
about the war. I'm not going to write about the war...much. Maybe just a
little. Check out the chilling <a
href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0304.marshall.html">Washington
Monthly </a>article by <a
href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/">Joshua Micah Marshall
</a>where he describes the vision of the Bush-affiliated
neo-conservatives and their hope that things continue to go wrong in the Middle
East, giving the U.S. the excuse to eventually bring the entire region under
our direct control. Conspiracy theorist you say? Check out the <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44794-2003Mar28.html">Washington
Post</a> where "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld delivered a
stern warning to Syria and Iran yesterday, threatening that the United States
would hold them accountable for interfering in the U.S.-led war against
neighboring Iraq."<br><p><p>And finally....The other
day, our fearless leader in the White House said something about how the small
setbacks we've been experiencing in Iraqwon't deter us because Americans have
experienced war. Well, not really, at
least not most of us, not like the rest of the world, unless you happened to be
living in Manhattan or near the Pentagon.
A lot of innocent Americans died on 9/11. By my reckoning, the number of Americans that died on 9/11 in
relation to our total population would be about the equivalent of 300 innocent
Iraqi deaths. I think we've probably
exceeded that. So maybe we can stop now. Of course that's assuming that one
believes that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, or that innocent Iraqis should
die even if they did. <br>
</div>
<blockquote><hr></blockquote>
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